THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Axial Age

The Persian Peace

The world in 500 BCE

In 500 BCE one empire overshadows all others: the Achaemenid Persian Empire of Darius I, the largest state the world has yet known, reaching from Egypt and Thrace to the Indus. Its roads, satraps and royal couriers hold together dozens of peoples.

On its western edge, the Greek cities are restless; Athens has just become a democracy, and next year the Ionian Greeks will revolt against Persia, setting off the Persian Wars. Rome has recently expelled its last king and become a republic, while Carthage leads a trading empire in the western Mediterranean. This is also an age of great thinkers. In China, Confucius is teaching amid the wars of the Spring and Autumn period; in India, by traditional dates, Magadha is rising among the kingdoms of the Ganges plain, where the Buddha and Mahavira lived and taught around this time (their exact dates are debated). In the Americas, the Zapotecs are founding Monte Albán in Oaxaca and early Maya cities are growing in Guatemala.

Open the map in 500 BCE

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Khoisan hunter-gatherers live across southern Africa. Around the Great Lakes, Bantu-speaking farmers of the Urewe culture are beginning to smelt iron, a skill that will speed their spread southward in the centuries to come.

Northern Africa

Egypt is a province of the Persian Empire, conquered by Cambyses in 525 BCE. The kingdom of Kush rules Nubia from Napata, with Meroë rising as a second centre, and Carthage commands the North African coast. The Nok culture of Nigeria makes striking terracotta sculptures and is beginning to work iron, and the kingdom of D'mt rules the Ethiopian highlands.

Europe

Athens has just adopted democracy under Cleisthenes (508/507 BCE), and Sparta, under King Cleomenes I, leads the Peloponnese. Rome became a republic in 509 BCE, the Etruscans dominate much of Italy, and Greek colonies dot the Mediterranean coasts. Hallstatt Celtic chiefs rule central Europe, Scythian nomads hold the steppe, and Germanic peoples farm the north.

Middle East & South Asia

Darius I rules the Achaemenid Empire from Persepolis and Susa, governing Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran, Afghanistan and the Indus valley through satraps. South Arabia's Sabaean kingdom grows rich on incense. In India, sixteen great kingdoms and republics (the Mahajanapadas) compete in the Ganges plain, with Magadha under Bimbisara, Kosala and Avanti the strongest; Gandhara in the north-west is a Persian province.

Northern & Central Asia

Iranian-speaking nomads such as the Saka and Massagetae roam the steppes of Central Asia; the Massagetae killed Cyrus the Great in 530 BCE. Bactria and Sogdiana are Persian provinces. Further north, the Pazyryk horse-riding peoples of the Altai and the forest hunters of Siberia live beyond any empire.

East Asia

China is in the late Spring and Autumn period: King Jing of Zhou reigns in name, while the great states of Jin, Qi, Chu, Wu and Yue fight for supremacy. Confucius, now about 50, holds office in his home state of Lu. Korea's Bronze Age chiefdoms include the early state of Gojoseon, and in Japan the Jōmon way of life is beginning to give way to Yayoi rice farming.

Southeast Asia

The Đông Sơn culture of northern Vietnam casts magnificent bronze drums that are traded across Southeast Asia. The Sa Huỳnh culture lives along the central Vietnamese coast, and Austronesian peoples trade among the islands. Contacts with India are beginning.

Northern North America

The Dorset culture (Paleo-Inuit) hunts seals on the sea ice of Arctic Canada and Greenland. The Norton tradition flourishes in Alaska, and forest hunters and Pacific coast fishing peoples live across the rest of the north.

Southern North America

The Olmec world is fading, while the Zapotecs found their mountaintop capital at Monte Albán in Oaxaca around 500 BCE and the Maya build early cities such as Nakbé. In the Ohio valley, the Adena people bury their dead in great earthen mounds and trade copper and mica.

Northern South America

The Chavín culture, centred on its temple in the Peruvian highlands, is at its peak, uniting much of Peru through shared religion and art. Along the south coast, the Paracas culture is beginning to weave elaborate textiles. Amazonian peoples farm manioc and enrich their soils.

Southern Cone

Hunter-gatherers live across the Pampas and Patagonia, and canoe peoples live in the channels of Tierra del Fuego. Farming villages influenced by the Andes are spreading in north-west Argentina.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians live across the continent, and Papuan farmers cultivate New Guinea. Polynesians live in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, but a long pause before their next great voyages has begun. New Zealand and eastern Polynesia remain uninhabited.

Events

  1. Confucius is born in the state of Lu (traditional date)
  2. Cyrus the Great of Persia captures Babylon
  3. Cambyses II conquers Egypt for Persia
  4. Darius I seizes the Persian throne
  5. Romans expel their last king and found the Republic (traditional date)
  6. Cleisthenes' reforms establish democracy in Athens
  7. Ionian Greeks revolt against Persia, beginning the road to the Persian Wars

Moments of this period

Wars of this period

More chapters

Sources